1. Technical Field
The invention relates to the construction industry, more particularly to building structures, which are completely factory-assembled modular elements having the form of wall structures that have a rigid bearing base, an insulating and finishing layers attached thereto and may be used in the construction of civilian and industrial facilities with high requirements for strength, heat insulation, waterproofing and decorative external facing of buildings having any number of floors.
2. Background Art
The unit-based construction often uses concrete poured frame structures, which form a wall surface, with insulating and finishing layers attached thereto after erection of a building. Such configuration is not efficient, so once such structures have been mounted, a building needs additional insulation, both external and internal, as well as finishing making the construction an intensive process, both in terms of time and costs, especially when it comes to construction of high-rise buildings.
Solutions intended to provide more efficient construction methods by making ready-made building modules with insulating and finishing layers attached thereto are known in the prior art.
The prior art discloses structural modules, which are fully factory-assembled wall structures having surface protective and finishing layers and are used as ready-made units for erection of buildings varying in the number of floors and intended for housing or public needs. The advantage of factory-assembled building structures is that the number of operations required to erect a finished building at a construction site is minimized, so the construction time can be significantly reduced. Today, however, the development of better building systems for construction of inexpensive, efficient and easy-to-build housing units has slowed down due to requirements for quick, high-quality and inexpensive construction of residential units having an elastic design that does not require significant efforts for maintenance and, at the same time, is firmly structured and provides the required insulation.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,751,803 dd. Jun. 21, 1998 is known to the applicant and discloses a building module which is made of steel frame structures with protruding horizontal and vertical beams connected by their ends to form fasteners at edges for subsequent assembly, the said structures are coated with an insulating layer reinforced with a wire mesh and poured with a concrete mixture to form a bearing base together with the insulating layer and the reinforcing layer with a finishing layer, preferably made of bricks, attached to the outside of the said layers to form a ready-made module that can be transported to a construction site for erection of a building.
The disadvantage of this structure is that the concrete poured steel frame structure restricts the availability of the invention, since heavyweight reinforced concrete frames—besides difficulties with transporting and mounting associated with a high probability of mechanical damage to the finishing layer and chipping of the frame itself—have low resistance to static loads limiting their application to preferably low-rise buildings. Further, when mounting such building modules it is necessary to provide additional insulation of joints between adjacent modules. Another disadvantage is that due to the box-shaped structure formed by the framed design, the said modules form the so-called “cold bridges” causing heat losses.
The drawback associated with heavyweight is partially solved by Patent DE 19542315 dd. Apr. 24, 1997 disclosing a structural module with a lightweight reinforced concrete base and a layer which is attached thereto and also has a concrete matrix consisting of water, cement, foaming agent, and plasticizer and contains, as a filler, pumice particles or foam glass pellets or foam plastic granules that provide extra heat-insulating and waterproofing properties.
The problem with walls of this type is that the more lightweight the concrete, the less mechanical strength the walls exhibit, and, as a consequence, the said walls do not meet the minimum static requirements for high-rise buildings. Further, the said structure does not allow a manufacturer to prefabricate a heat-insulating layer and a finishing layer.
Patent Application FR 2709504 A1 dd. Mar. 10, 1995 discloses a building module having a bearing reinforced concrete wall element with a heat-insulating layer attached to the outside of the said wall element, and the said layer is made of a concrete mixture with vegetable fibers, and a finishing layer made of a plaster material is attached to the said layer.
The said building module makes it possible to simplify erection of residential and public buildings thanks to a lightweight heat-insulating layer and a finishing layer prefabricated on the bearing reinforced concrete element; however the disadvantage of the solution known in the prior art is insufficient shear resistance of the finishing layer and high thermal conductivity of the module due to the materials used to form the said layers as well as relatively insufficient hydrophobicity of both the module itself and buildings erected with such modules due to insufficient waterproofing of joints between both the modules and their structural elements, i.e. between a heat-insulating layer and a finishing layer and window and/or door units or hinged elements, such as balconies or the like.
Based on the set of features for solving the problems known in the prior art, Patent EP 3059354 B1 dd. Apr. 18, 2018 is considered as the closest prior art. The said patent discloses a building module comprising a bearing, preferably reinforced concrete, wall element having the form of a rectangular parallelepiped, with openings therein designed to install window and/or door units, a heat-insulating layer, a reinforcing layer and a finishing layer configured so that the said layers indent from the edge of the bearing wall element, and the reinforcing layer has a bond strength of at least 0.8 MPa when it bonds to the finishing layer. The building module configured to have a bearing element, a heat-insulating layer, a reinforcing layer and a finishing layer makes it possible to simplify erection of residential and public buildings and, as a consequence, to reduce their production costs as well as to increase their heat-insulating properties by creating the required heat-insulating layer and finishing layer, which performs protective and decorative functions, concurrently with the mounting of modules. However, as noted above, the bulkiness and heavy weight of the base is a significant drawback for construction projects using ready-made building modules.
To meet strength and stability standards, such panels are made of heavyweight concrete. A considerable weight of such structural elements of buildings increases installation and transportation costs and, under certain circumstances, the costs required to strengthen the foundation of a building. Under increased external loads, especially those of dynamic nature, the use of heavyweight concrete panels does not provide the required level of strength and stability of buildings.